Net art, online performances, pranks and false identities by Eva and Franco Mattes, aka
0100101110101101.ORG, reveal the hidden and repressed characteristics of the individual
hidden behind a computer. In virtual worlds and parallel realities, in the cyborg [human +
computer], at the very end, they discover a ghost, which runs the symbiotic machine and
which is, after all, (nothing but) a primate = irritable, competitive, egocentric and many
other things. In the present exhibition entitled Fuck the Systsem, we will be presented with
four provocative online and public actions, whose mutual interest is the “game” as a
civilisational and cultural achievement.

The artistic pair has played all types of games (following Roger Caillois: competition,
gambling, mimicry, excitement). In the project Plan C (2010), the couple and their
collaborators set up an action in three acts: arrival in Ukraine, investigation of Chernobyl,
and transfer of material to Manchester. The game Plan C was ostensibly a prank; however,
it was actually perfectly serious and full of adrenalin. In the video and photo
documentation of the second part of the action, the artists wearing white protective
clothing investigated the abandoned remains of an amusement park with merry-go-rounds
and electric cars. According to Caillois, circuses belong to the type of games that anticipate
risk, which always entails the decisive punishment for the acrobat – death. In the last part
of the project Plan C, the artists transferred a merry-go-round from Ukraine to Great
Britain; however, nobody took the potential risk of the object seriously.

The works My Generation (2010) and Freedom (2010) explore the deterioration of the
game, caused by the breaking of the rules of the game or the player’s digressions. Freedom is an online performance, in which the Mattes entered a shoot-out videogame to engage
other players in establishing a discourse about another reality – contemporary art. Their
attempt was a complete failure. Heavily armed commandos had erased them from the game
even before the performance could have started. This raised the question of the identity of
the people on the other side of the screen, who control the avatars. Therefore, using found
footage from the internet, the Mattes compiled a shocking video work My Generation,
which shows people during fits of rage after they have lost a game. They take games too
seriously. They have lost all sense of an “extra-game” reality, and their obsession harms
intimate and familial relationships, it leads to keyboards being broken, monitors being spat
on, etc.

In the video work No Fun (2010), Franco Mattes dangled from the ceiling as a suicide
victim to register the reactions of casual visitors to the website Chatroulette, that is
otherwise being used for video chats between (often coincidental) visitors. Many
interlocutors were shocked; however, the most shocking reactions were those of the people
who were totally indifferent. For in the field of virtual reality, there is very little awareness
of death, which is a natural and inevitable part of digital life. Death, not only as a political
protest against corporate web environments (YouTube banned the screening of the video),
but also as a consequence of a defect in the vital functions of a human organism or a hard
drive.

Eva and Franco Mattes aka 0100101110101101.ORG

Eva and Franco Mattes are the Italian artist behind the website 0100101110101101.org. They work together since 1994, living a nomadic life throughout Europe and the US. Among the pioneers of the Net Art movement, they are renowned for their masterful subversion of public media. Over the last fifteen years, the Mattes have manipulated video games, Internet technologies, feature films and street advertising to reveal truths concealed by contemporary society.
Their art has been featured at the Venice Biennale (2001), the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2001), Manifesta, Frankfurt (2002) and in various venues worldwide, including the New Museum, New York (2005), Collection Lambert, Avignon (2006), Performa, New York (2007 and 2009) and PS1, New York (2010).